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Former Kelowna Fire Chief Gerry Zimmermann can't understand why fire officials don't just hammer even the smallest of fires with everything they have.
Zimmermann was Kelowna's fire chief during the Okanagan Mountain Park fire in 2003.
That fire started with an early-morning lightning strike. Instead of extinguishing it right away, provincial forestry officials let it burn.
The resulting wildfire forced the evacuation of more than 30,000 people, and saw the loss of more than 240 homes, about 264,000 hectares of timber and several of the Myra Canyon trestles.
"I don't know the full particulars, but it sure seems to be the same," Zimmermann said of similarities between 2003 and the current Good Creek fire.
The current fire, which has grown exponentially, started from a single lightning strike Tuesday night. The BC Wildfire Service kept an eye on what was called a spot fire while they determined how to deploy resources for the nearly two dozen lightning-caused fires.
Castanet has received many emails and phone calls from people who believe the province dropped the ball.
"I don't disagree with their fears. I don't want to be an armchair expert, but during our fires our guys said the same thing. If we had enough manpower, we would like to go and kill that thing," Zimmermann said.
"The idea of letting it smolder and not putting it out completely scares me quite frankly. If you have something like that in my estimation, why wouldn't you just go in and completely extinguish it to the best of your ability."
Jurisdictional boundaries kept the Kelowna Fire Department from intervening 15 years ago.
Zimmermann said members of his crew asked for the resources to kill the fire soon after it started, but were told it was outside their jurisdiction.
But he said, given a chance to do it again, he would do it differently.
"I would say bring in everything you have right now and worry about the cost later on. Too often, these decisions are made based more on money than anything," he said.
"Just throw everything at it and to hell with the jurisdictions and to hell with the boundary lines."
